iPad spends 20% of time in bed

Among the interesting stats turned up by a new study of iPad usage is that 20 per cent of users' iPad time is spent in bed.

That nugget was buried in a blog post by Stephen Baker, the NPD Group's VP of industry analysis, discussing his research group's just-released "iPad Owner Study."

"It is obvious that the iPad form factor makes people feel warm and cuddly," writes Baker.

Considering that a recent Nielsen survey discovered that 63 per cent of iPad owners are under 35 — significantly younger than owners of an Amazon Kindle or the study's representative netbook — we can only hope that a goodly chunk of that iPad bedtime time is spent with apps such as Naim Cesur's iKamasutra XL or an iBooks download of Violet Blue's Lust.

Speaking of lust, the NPD survey also revealed that early iPad adopters are more satisfied than those who puchased theirs after the initial rush — satisified with their iPads, that is. A full 80 percent of early adopters identified themselves as "very satisfied" with their purchase, a figure that dropped to 65 per cent for those who waited.

Those early adopters currently use their iPads more than 18 hours per week, and for about a third of them, that per-week usage is growing — a trend opposite to that experienced by your Reg reporter, who found his iPad involvement shrinking over time.

But, it must be quickly admitted, said Reg reporter is far north of that under-35 demographic.

In a separate release announcing the survey, Baker also noted that "Early adopters, like iPad owners ... purchase products because they want them, not because they need them."

That characterization, some would argue, fits well with the Mac-centric nature of iPad owners. Among the early iPad adopters, 50 per cent owned Macs; among later buyers, that number dropped to 45 per cent.

The study also weighed in on the ongoing controversy over whether iPad sales are cannibalizing PC sales — NPD says the effect is minimal. Their findings weren't quite as sanguine for Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and other ebook readers, however: "According to the report," the NPD release reads, "only 13 percent of iPad owners surveyed bought an iPad instead of a PC, while 24 percent replaced a planned e-reader purchase with an iPad."

You can find information on how to purchase a copy of the "iPad Owner Study" here. Ask for a PDF version, so you can read it on your iPad.